Royal Poinciana/Flamboyant Tree

I love this tree. They have been blooming for months. They look like flaming orange fires!

Royal Poinciana is a favorite in Florida and I (along with many other Miami residents) look forward to seeing them bloom each year. We love them so much that we have an annual festival in Miami to celebrate their flowering.

Great color. I wish someone would hybridize a tree that would bloom for months in Iowa and still live over the winter.

I have never seen one of these in bloom in person,Would like top someday.......Susie, yu need another gardner don't ya??LOL :-)

Kyle, yes! I need you to come show me how to fix my tropical messes, uh, I mean beds, lol. How do you feel about barbequed gator?

Hey Kyle, can I ride along. I need to take some lessons too.

EEEEWWWY! I sho nuff luv's me some bar-b-q- gator!! When do we eat?? LOL

:-)

Come on down anytime. Frannie and Lisa are coming this weekend, we could have a mini round-up! We'd wrestle a gator, skin him for shoes and bbq his tail for dinner(and if we can't find a gator, we can buy chicken and say it's gator)

Susie, ya'll know how to show a guy a good time eh?After gator tastes like chicken....NOT! Tastes like gator! LOL

I love these trees. I've got a couple of seedlings. If you want to see plenty of them - go to Mexico! They are gorgeous down there!!!

I should say its "Flamboyant"! Its beautiful!

Shely, the way it got it's name was when the French came to the new world and saw it blooming, they delcared "Flamboyant!" and that's what it is called in lot of Mexico and Belize.

That is beautiful, Calalily! I have one that I grew from seed, and it is living in a container. I think it is around two years old, but it might be less than that. I'm wondering if it will survive a winter outdoors here if I put it in the ground. It might be too young to handle the cold and wet winter.

This is it last May. It grew quite a bit this summer and was repotted to a larger container, but I think it is ready for the ground if I can find a spot.

I wish we could grow those up here in this part of Florida. Beautiful tree! Lucky you Susie.. Say hello and give a big hug to Frannie & Lisa from me.

Claire, don't know if they can handle wet, but we get down to 39-40 for a few days in Jan/Feb sometimes and they come thru just fine.
MzM, Frannie and Lisa are having a great time. We've already hit the nurseries, Bill took Lisa and Lauren to the Island for fireworks(and gocarts and real Mexican food) and we're going to Mexico today. I don' t think they're gonna get any rest!

Thanks, Calalily! That is good to know about Delonix. I had heard that they were super sensitive to the slightest amount of cold.

Susie, have a great time with Frannie and Lisa. I have seen that tree bloom in FL and it is gorgeous. One I will not attempt in MS. I just drool ever time I go to FL.

I saw these booming in Tunica. Miss. last week, they are lovely, will they grow in Zone 6 or 7 or in a planter

Suzie, last winter when I went to Belize, these things were just gorgeous and everywhere. Looked like the whole area was on fire. I asked our guide what it was and she said Flamboyant, and I said it sure it, but what is it? Have fun with Frannie and Lisa! Larry is coming by tomorrow or Wednesday. Going to a school here for a few weeks.

Kareoke, you sure it was Delonix you saw? There's just no way they would ever survive temperatures like that as far as I know... and if it is Delonix I want seeds from those trees:-)

This message was edited Aug 24, 2004 11:18 PM

Calalily, what kind of position do you have your Delonix in btw? I had told Clare that mine in a large pot is quite sensitive to cold, and one that I tried in the ground here died... maybe I got seeds from a supersensitive variety?

Kareoke, you sure it was Delonix you saw? There's just no way they would ever survive temperatures like that as far as I know... and if it is Delonix I want some seeds from it:-)

Edited because part of my post was cut off for some reason.

This message was edited Aug 25, 2004 3:19 PM

Indigoez, I was wondering the same thing, lol. I just asked a nursery friend if Frannie could grow it in Houston because she can grow Jacaranda. He said no way unless she brings it into the greenhouse in the winter because it can't take freezing temps.
Mine is on the west side of my house, sheltered on two sides by the house and a 6ft wood fence. I will pay more attention to how people have them planted, they are everywhere down here. Two neighbors have them on the south side of their houses.
Pride of Barbados, casalpina, looks a little bit like Poinciana Tree but is shorter and the flowers are smaller.

GEE, sorry, all I know is that I was asking the gardener what the tree was with the beautifull red flowers and he said it was Poinciana. maybe he didn't know *S* after looking at other trees I would say he had it wrong and it was Crepe Murtle tree. Please don't ban me for this *LOL*

Kareoke, it was probably casealpina, which is called "poinciana bush" here. It's not your fault, lol, it's because people use common names. We also have another tree here called poinciana(I can't remember the exact name), and it's totally different and has yellow flowers. I hate it when three or four different plants have the same common name!

It's probably a poinciana bush, casealpina.
If this post shows up twice, it's because my computer is still not letting me see posts, so if it does, I apologize in advance.
Well, I see that it did post twice. I can't figure out why it's only this computer that does it. I had to refresh the page a bunch of times to get it to show up. I use the same connection, same software and everything on the other computer in the office, but on this one, posts don't show up. Isn't that odd? The other computer has "the hard-drive click of death" lol. We're trying to help it hang on till Friday when the repairman will fix it, so I try not to use it for surfing DG and stuff.

This message was edited Aug 25, 2004 1:44 PM

Don't worry about it Kareoke:-) I've seen some plants that were not even remotely "poincianaish" (going by the leaf appearance) called such at local nurseries. I have the poinciana bush, one with the red/orange/yellow flowers. Those grow here quite well, and I have seedlings of the pink one... very fast growing. Started them last week and they are already about 2.5 inches tall.

I also bought more Delonix seeds last night to try again with putting one outside. Probably dooming it, but I want to try again.

My laptop has the "screen flicker of death" Cala, so you're not alone with malfunctioning computers. I'm about to put it in the nice shipping box they just sent me to get it repaired, and then get the ancient desktop out of the closet to use in the meantime, which is gonna be really weird after getting used to the laptop lol:-)

Indigoez, they have a pink poinciana??? That sounds pretty.
I know all about the screen flicker of death!

Indigoez, I started the pink Caesalpinia about a year ago, but they didn't make it through the winter. The seedlings are very sensitive to cold and wet so you may want to consider bringing your seedlings inside for the winter. Also, one of the guys from the GardenWeb Tropical forum told a story once about how he raised several Delonix trees from seed, and each winter for five years, he would bring them into his greenhouse. When he thought they were large enough and strong enough, he planted them in the ground in his Zone 10. They all died, and he was devastated. This has been a huge topic of conversation over at GardenWeb. I haven't read all the threads because they get really long, but from what I gather there are only a handful of mature trees in Southern California. Apparently, they grow much better in the warmest areas of the United States. They are very sensitive to temperatures under 50 degrees, especially when they are young trees.

Here is my Caesalpinia pulcherrima below. I also have Caesalpinia gilliesi, which has yellow flowers and red stamens, and Caesalpinia mexicana, which has yellow flowers and yellow stamens.



This message was edited Aug 25, 2004 1:52 PM

Cala, just fyi, the seedlings I have are about 3 years old now (both potted) and have never been brought in during winter. I live in Houston, about 30 minutesn (north) from Fannie's house. They lose their leaves in the winter, and you have to make sure they don't get or stay wet, but mine come through just fine, otherwise. They'd probably have trouble with a hard freeze, but we haven't had one of those in a while. So, you can let her know they can grow here!

Carter.

Carter, Frannie will be happy to hear that. Her seedlings were in gallon pots and the stems were about 2 ft tall. She was going to plant them in patio pots for a few years so she could roll them into the garage in case of a freeze. Y'all sure had a wet spring this year didn't you?

VERY!! Lots of rain. And then none for quite a while. We get it in spurts. Rather than an occasional shower or so, we get nothing for a month or two, then a full week or so. So, just when everything gets used to dry, they get drowned.

We just had a weekend of rain that was actually very good. My brugs have all looked very ugly and sad this summer, and after this rain, they are beginning to lush up. Hopefully I'll finally start seeing some blooms!

Clare,

I've put four Delonix regia in the ground this spring (two red, two grafted yellow). Also I've put two Colvilleas in the ground. Last winter I left them all on the balcony and just put them on a shelf that would protect them from excessive rain. All of the Delonix lost their leaves but none lost their growing tip. The two Colvilleas didn't lose their leaves until March.

On Spectre's site, Dave from La Habra posted a pic of a blooming full-size Delonix regia growing in La Habra. Also another full-size blooming one was posted growing in a small town at the Salton Sea.

I'm going to put dark plastic around the bases of my plants this winter and see how it goes. One of my Colvilleas is about four feet tall right now and one of the grafted yellow Delonix is about three feet with two strong branches. If I take the necessary precautions, I'm pretty hopeful.

By the way, I've got a seven foot Delonix decaryi and a four foot Delonix pumila and they have done fine the past few winters in the ground.

-Ron-

I have a Delonix decaryi too. I started it from seed around 3 years ago. I had two, put one in the ground and one in pot, the one in the ground died:-/ The one in the pot stays out all winter though and has had no problem except that it's very twiggy to say the least.

I think it may indeed be the wet/cold combination that does Delonix trees in here

Ron, that's very interesting. I will be hopeful for you too:-) My little tree is rootbound in a five-gallon container so I think I'm going to repot it to a 15-gallon container. I intend to leave it outdoors all winter against the house and will probably do the same with black plastic around the base for extra warmth. There is a possibility that I can get my husband to dig a hole in the lawn that is in front of our house, and then I can plant it there, and it can be a street tree. My only concern is that it is too little at this point. It's around three feet tall. What do you think, Ron? Should I try it? Thanks!

Clare, here's my suggestion. If the Delonix is rootbound, I'd repot it now. Do what you plan to do for the winter. If you decide to plant it in the ground at any time in the future, put it in the gound around May (or about when it starts its growth cycle). That way, you'll have a whole season to get it's roots settled in well.

What I try to do myself (and this applies to almost all of the little tropical trees I've planted in the past), is I get them in the ground at a fairly young age in May so they can get a whole season to establish their roots. That first winter, I protect them as best I can. If they make it, in subsequent winters I pretty much leave them alone. I usually don't water them unless they still have leaves and if there is a warm dry spell in January lets say.

Some of the other trees I've got in the ground right now also are Bolusanthus speciosus, Peltophorum africanum, Peltophorum pterocarpum, Schotia brachypetala, Schotia afra, yellow Spathodea campanulata, orange Spathodea campanulata, Radermachera ignea.

The only ones I'm concerned about are the Colvilleas, the Delonix, and the Peltophorum africanum as this will be their first winter.

I live on a hillside east of San Diego and frequently we get the fog that rolls in in the winter. So, even though it is clear below me and there might be frost down there, on the hillside it is usually protected. I don't ever remember there being frost up here since I've lived here. The coldest January or February morning might be 36 or 38 degrees perhaps--but that's unusual. Plus, I live far enough inland, that the marine layer burns off by mid-morning, so unless, it's rainiy and overcast--it's usually sunny and warm by midday.

For example, my Spathodeas and my Caesalpinia pulcherrima (albeit the silver-blue Mexican one) never lose their leaves in the winter.

-Ron-

These trees, Cala, bloom from about March to June when it is summertime. Indeed, they ARE flamboyant! Such a beautiful sight when all the trees in an avenue blooms. I'm talking about the Delonix regia.

My Caesalpinia pul. is about 12 feet tall now - Have not trimmed it - want it to act like a screen to the house and I have only trimmed it so as to allow us to walk beneath it. It has grown into a nice canopy. The parrots' favourite is the green raw seed.

Ron, thank you so much for this advice. I will repot my Delonix to the 15-gallon container and will plant to plant it this coming May. Thanks again for your invaluable insight. My, what an interesting collection of trees you have. If I had my own piece of land to plant, I would follow in your footsteps and plant lots of wonderful trees, including lots of plumerias! We live in one of the desireable places in the country so we should be able to make these trees thrive. I wish you lots of luck with yours and please keep us posted how your trees do through the winter.

Your climate sounds very similar to mine. The lowest temperature was probably 35 or 36 this past winter but only for a few hours in the very early morning and only for a couple of days. It stayed in the 40's otherwise at night. We get lost of coastal fog in the winter also, which burns off by noon.

My C. pulcherrima doesn't lose its leaves either. I think I have both the silver-blue Mexican one with thorns and the other one with a smooth trunk, but I can't be sure until it blooms. The one with the smooth trunk has very fine lacy foliage also and has grown well over 10 feet tall. I thought maybe it was a C. gilliesii, but now I'm not sure. It is a pretty bare trunk but up at the way top there is lots of branching and foliage. I'm tempted to trim it but can't bring myself to do it since it will certainly alter the graceful form.

Dinu, your C. pulcherrima sounds lovely.

Carter I would love to have a few seeds.

Blessings,
Sandy

ilj, I don't have any. My d. regia is still a seedling itself and won't bloom for several more years. Seeds are fairly easy to get a hold of, though. Not too difficult to find and VERY easy to germinate!!